Arafat urges DW: Prove human rights commitment airing Gaza documentary

State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat on Tuesday urged the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) to show commitment to human rights and press freedom by making and broadcasting a documentary on the genocide orchestrated by Israeli forces in Gaza.

He made the call while talking at a workshop here about the recent DW documentary on Bangladesh's human rights situation compared with the context of Sri Lanka.

The state minister inaugurated the workshop titled “Right to Information for the Marginalized and Disadvantaged Citizen” at the Information Commission (IC) conference room in the city's Agargaon area on Tuesday morning.

"Very recently, the DW released a report on human rights, tagging Bangladesh with Sri Lanka, which witnessed a civil war in the recent past. I do not want to criticize it rather, I appreciate the commitment of any organization towards human rights," he said.

"But I would like to ask the DW to prove its commitment to human rights and press freedom by making a documentary on the human rights violation and genocide in Gaza," Arafat added.

If the DW could not do it, he said, the documentary will be treated as motivated and a part of the anti-Bangladesh conspiracy being carried out by a vested quarter, which does not talk about the problems and development of the marginalized people in real sense and try to tarnish the country's image at the global stage.

On May 25, the Inter-Services Public Relations Directorate (ISPR) issued a rejoinder protesting the DW documentary titled "Torturers deployed as UN peacekeepers" and terming it a "false and fallacious one".

"This documentary presents a misleading portrayal of Bangladesh Army personnel in UN Peacekeeping Missions," said the ISPR rejoinder.

Source: BSS